secretary powell on his official or personal e-mail accounts that you have access to as the head foia official as department of stay? >> i know that he did not provide any copies of e-mails of official records. >> really? for four long years -- >> please let me finish, okay? >> please do so in a concise fashion. i only have five minutes. >> yes, sir. >> go ahead. >> i don't have any e-mails that were responsive to the our request. >> you keep using that phrase. do you have e-mails from colin powell that you have access to. >> my personal knowledge of what we might have in general i'm not sure. >> you're not sure. do you arehave access -- >> the thought the question asked to me before was much more specific. >> do you have access -- since you're not sure about colin powell, which i still find stunning, there is no evidence of any but you're the not sure. what about secretary condoleezza rice? >> i know she used a state.gov account and i'm sure we have access to them but i thought the question was in the context of responsive material or -- >> what do you mean? >> because we had a request. >> an

but what i can tell you is that chief foia officers who are designated high level officials, within even agency. do you recognized by law with foia as it currently existed really hold the key to helping improve foia across the government. and we do a lot to work with chief foia officers. because the idea there is you want a high level official in every agency who has an authority and responsibility to make sure there is sufficient staffing and attention and have the resources they need to operate. gearing off that role that a chief foia officer plays, starting in 2009 with the attorney general holder's foia guidelines, we have the chief foia report and every year we ask, we at oip at the department of justice, we ask chief foia officers to report on the steps they have

secretary powell on his official or personal e-mail accounts that you have access to as the head foia official as department of stay? >> i know that he did not provide any copies of e-mails of official records. >> really? for four long years -- >> please let me finish, okay? >> please do so in a concise fashion. i only have five minutes. >> yes, sir. >> go ahead. >> i don't have any e-mails that were responsive to the our request. >> you keep using that phrase. do you have e-mails from colin powell that you have access to. >> my personal knowledge of what we might have in general i'm not sure. >> you're not sure. do you arehave access -- >> the thought the question asked to me before was much more specific. >> do you have access -- since you're not sure about colin powell, which i still find stunning, there is no evidence of any but you're the not sure. what about secretary condoleezza rice? >> i know she used a state.gov account and i'm sure we have access to them but i thought the question was in the context of responsive material or -- >> what do you mean? >> because we had a request. >> an

i am here as a department's senior foia official to assure you that we have committed to working cooperatively with the ig with his review, and any recommendations that may follow. my testimony for the record includes information about related issues such as our foia website and the role we play in helping the public get access to information from presidential libraries libraries. again the department of state is committed to public access to information. mr. chairman, i thank the committee for the opportunity to testify today and would be pleased to address questions that you or any other member of the committee may have on foia within the state department. thank you. >> thank you. appreciate it. ms. buspustay you're recognized for five minutes. make sure the mike tonecrophone is pulled up straight. turn it on. >> good morning. good morning chairman and ranking member cummings and members of the committee. pleased to be here today to discuss the foia and the department of justice's ongoing efforts to encourage agency compliance with the very important law. there are several areas of success t

what you have in the national review piece is internal e-mails saying there are career foia officials about the process and saying the political review committee is taking forever and the freedom of information act is not just media that any citizen can request documents. the government is allowed to request an extra 10 days. citizens and media can sue if the government doesn't respond and they attracted not much to the frustration of regular career officials. stuart: i don't understand. why would career officials in the treasury department not want to hold things up a little? >> you know in this agency is there are really honorable public servants tried to do their jobs who want to get documents to people in who aren't looking out for political considerations. that is that the people appointed by the president at the top levels are doing much of the frustration of these people. the media in particular is singled out. stuart: surprise, surprise. >> it explains the possibility between the above administration and the media. stuart: eliana johnson, thank you for bringing us to this. app

specifically h.r. 1615 requires that the department's chief foia officer collaborate with foia officials and component agencies to track the total annual costs associated with processing foia requests, identify and eye do not cost-saving mothers and strategize on addressing the backlog. i would also note that in committee measures authored by democratic members to promote or auto mation and address staffing resources were adopted with bipartisan support. mr. speaker, i mr. speaker, i urge passage of h.r. 1615, a bipartisan bill that seeks to improve the responsiveness of the department of homeland security to the american public, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. carter: mr. speaker, i have no more speakers. if the gentlewoman from new jersey has no further speakers, i'm prepared to close once the gentlewoman does. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman from new jersey is recognized. mrs. watson coleman: thank you mr. speaker. i have no further speakers and i'm p

but what i can tell you is that chief foia officers who are designated of high level officials within each agency designated by law with the foia as it currently exists i think are really a key -- really hold the key to helping improve foia across the government. and we do a lot to work with chief foia officers because the idea there is that you want a high level official in every agency who has authority and responsibility to make sure that foia operations have sufficient attention, have the resources they need to operate. and gearing off that important rule that a chief foia officer plays, starting in 2009 with the attorney general holder's foia guidelines we created a mechanism called the chief foia officer report. and every year we asked -- we at o.i.p., at the d.o.j., we asked chief foia officers to report to us every year on the steps they've taken to improve foia compliance. and we address a range of issues, use of technology, proactive disclosures timeliness in responding to a request and every year we have been changing the metrics that we ask and the questions that we ask of

foia officers. because the idea there is you want a high level official in every agency who has an authority and responsibility to make sure there is sufficient staffing and attention and have the resources they need to operate. gearing off that role that a chief foia officer plays, starting in 2009 with the attorney general holder's foia guidelines, we have the chief foia report and every year we ask, we at oip at the department of justice, we ask chief foia officers to report on the steps they have taken to improve compliance and address a range of issues, use of technology, proactive disclosures, timeliness in responding to a request. and every year we have been changing the metrics we ask and the questions we ask of those chief foia officers. because as we see foia processes improve or as we see steps taken to approve foia, we want to keep agencies to do more and better, so it's an evolving process for us. so i think that we have a lot of good mechanisms in place right now that take advantage of the position of the chief foia officer. >> well, let me turn to the chief foia officers. how do each of you feel

foia to compare with mrs. clinton's decision to use a secret account to conduct her government business and have other agency officialst as well. there was a whole cadre of state department officials who went dark and were conducting government business in such a way that made it immune to scrutiny. will he ever win in his pursuit, tom? >> i hope he does, and i hope congress helps him win by getting by it getting its hands on hillary clinton's server. look we've never had a secretary of state who kept her own server in the basement of her house and unilaterally decided whether to wipe it clean or not. this is just unprecedented in our history. but what we're learning here is that the rules that apply to the rest of the world don't apply in clinton world. the lines between official and unofficial are mored the lines between illegal and legal are blurred and so we need to find out what else is on those e-mails -- bill: i know goudy wants that but can she get away with the this? the head of the rnc is saying this goes to trust this is why you can't trust her as a candidate, that will be a continued theme. can she get awa

able a specific legislative proposal but what i can tell you is that chief foia officers who are designated high level officials, designated by law with foia as it currently kpilsexists really hold the key to helping improve foia across the government and we do a lot to work with chief foia officers because the idea there is the that you want a high level official in every agency who has authority and responsibility to make as you were that the foia operations have sufficient staffing, have sufficient attention, have the resources that they need to operate and gearing off that important role that a chief foia officer plays starting in 2009 with the attorney general holder's foia guidelines we have the chief foia report and every year we ask, we at oip at the department of justice, we ask chief foia officers to report on the steps they have taken to improve compliance and address a range of issues use of technology proactive disclosures, timeliness in responding to the a request and every year we have been changing the met tricks that we ask and the questions that we ask of those chief foia officers because as w